Erotic figurine

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The small crouching figure slings a huge phallus over his shoulder. The identity of the figure is unclear, but often the figure is identifiable as a child-god, probably Harpokrates. The type is connected with a complex of informal statuary including many ithyphallic figures known from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. In general these informal figurines are thought to be connected with festivals celebrating a divine birth.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art